Why I Feel That Videotron Is A Greedy Company That Scams Its Customers

I hate greed and I hate feeling I am being gouged and that is how Videotron made me feel.

What is up Canada? I have been with Videotron for a very long time; not so much for their great service, their great equipment or even their great price, but more because I had always been with them since getting cable in my 1st flat and there was a certain comfort in that for me. I do not know remember when Videotron 1st decided to start renting you the equipment or offering to let you buy the equipment rather than do what was right by their customers and simply provide the equipment that their customers needed to be able to receive the channels that they wanted to beam into your living room for a hefty charge, but what a big money maker this has turned out to be for Videotron at the expense of their customers; in my opinion.

I have Videotron cable in three rooms and over the course of the years Videotron has rented me one receiver which I agreed to and sold me 2 without my knowledge and so obviously without my consent. I am one of those foolish consumers that does not check their bill as long as it remains pretty much the same every month, so I never noticed that they had sold me the damn things. Why would I buy and take on the responsibility for the cost of upgrading out dated Videotron equipment and paying technicians to do repairs to Videotron equipment? It seems clear to me why Videotron would engage in this type of shady business. I think that they did it because they got greedy and back then they had a monopoly in Quebec. They did it because at the time they could get away with it they were the only game in townthey c in order not to have to replace their old equipment as it got out dated, or as my recently did just stopped working.

Here is how this scam works: When I moved into my 41/2 room lower in a 6plex in Lasalle Que. I had the living room, spare room and master bedroom wired for cable, because of a promotion they were having although I only installed receivers for the master and the living room Some years ago the Explorer 2000 Videotron receiver in my living room stopped working properly, so I called Videotron and their representative told me that the receiver that I had was out dated and that they would be sending a technician to my house to install a new receiver; I said okay. The repair guy came and installed an Explorer 3200 and I once again had cable in the living room and was informed that the installation was free. I asked the repair guy what I should to do with the old box and he said, “whatever you want.” I thought that was strange, but I never gave it a 2nd thought. Since the box was working when it felt like it (after a few reboots) I decided to hook it up to the spare room outlet where I did not have a receiver, but had Videotron install the cable. Not long after the outdated box in the master bedroom emits sparks and shorts out. I called Videotron again and again they sent a technician who replaced the outdated box with a new small no name receiver; I got my cable service back and this time they took away the box that almost caught on fire. I now owned 2 Videotron receivers and didn’t even know it. What that means is now Videotron was off the hook for the updating, repairing and exchanging faulty equipment and all that had become my responsibility at my cost, without anyone at Videotron ever telling me and in my opinion Videotron has just scammed me.

Yesterday after disconnecting my Videotron Explorer 3200 so that I could rearrange my living room when it was time to reconnect, the receiver would not turn on, so once again after trying everything possible I was forced to call Videotron to see what could be done and that is when I found out that I was not renting the receivers, but rather that I somehow owned the receivers. According to the very nice Videotron rep representative I talked to on the phone, as far as Videotron was concerned I only had 3 options if I wanted to keep Videotron as my cable supplier and they were to:

Rent a newer receiver from them and have it sent to me through the mail for no charge. No pick up allowed for renters.

Rent a newer receiver from them and have a technician deliver and install it for $56.00

Buy another receiver from them and start the whole mess all over again with me paying for equipment in order to make it possible for them to sell me cable service.

Note:Nothing that the Videotron representative offered me could be done within a day or 2.

Option 1 would take a minimum of 48hrs and really depended on mail delivery service.

Option 2 and 3, the service person could not even hazard a guess when they could send a technician. It being winter and the holiday season the service person explained that delivery would have to be determined based on the availability of a technician and I would be notified about when that would be within a few days.

When I explained to the Videotron representative that I had my house phone with Bell, my internet with Bell and in light of what I was being told was seriously considering completing the package and giving Bell my cable business as well, the rep kind of laughed and said that Bell was their major competitor and they both were aware of each other’s pricing and I would find no major savings with Bell, but if I would be willing to give them my internet and phone business they would be able to save me some money. It was now my time to laugh as I told the rep that I could not imagine doing that and finding out that I was responsible for replacing all servers, modems and terminal boxes in my house as they needed to be replace, because they were outdated, or malfunctioned do to no fault of my own. The Videotron rep said that they would e-mail me a quote for the 3 service package and send me a receiver in the mail and we hung up.

Note: I did get the quote from Videotron via e-mail and it wasn’t that far off of Bell, but it was all in French even though the whole conversation with the Videotron representative was conducted in English. They could not even get that right and so I decided that I did not want to do business with a company that could not be bothered to communicate with me in my mother tongue when sending me a quote in which they were asking me to transfer files I had with another company to theirs.

I realised that it was time to look at my only option as I saw it and that meant taking my business elsewhere and so I picked up the phone and called Bell. They will have their technician at my house between 8am and noon on Tuesday, I could have had Monday, but I have a doctors appointment that day. To be fair the prices were in the same ballpark for sure, with the exception of the long distance perks guaranteed as long as I keep all 3 services with Bell. Bell will even offered to do the cancelation of my account with Videotron so I didn’t have to bother and I accepted.

I wonder if PKP will run the Parti Quebecois in the same manner if he becomes their leader, the province if he ever becomes the premier of Quebec and Quebec as a country if it ever gains its independence under his watch, as he does Videotron?